Blackwell getting reported $4 million. Tennessee and Louisville leading the spending wars with Duke, others close behind. No mention of UCLA.
Just read an On3 article by Pete Nakos on college basketball's spending wars. Nakos listed a number of high spending schools - schools with the money to compete at the highest levels in whatever this has become of the sport we love. Or loved. As we have known it over the years, anyway. Not a whole lot of actual UCLA specific news right now but this seems a critical subject to me, establishing a different playing field altogether in the off-season.
Nakos quotes Sean Miller now of Texas stating he believes "20-25 schools" are spending $20 million on their rosters. He quotes an unnamed SEC front office source saying the spending "makes football look easy," says 4-5 SEC schools are "pushing $20 million." An unnamed ACC source put the number of schools spending $20 million on their rosters at 15 and puts the number spending $15 million or more at 25.
Schools mentioned in the article as having rosters pushing thet $20 million level in money they can estimate (not hidden from view) as including the usual suspects: Tennessee and Louisville, and he also mentions Duke in that. In the $10-$15 million range he names Indiana, UNC, Texas A&M, Miami, Michigan, Arizona, UConn (where basketball doesn't have to share much in the way of funding with football), and South Carolina.
Florida didn't make that list because their spending focused on retaining players already on the roster rather than spending through the transfer portal. He said the Gators' returning forward Thomas Haugh is expected to make upwards of $5 million this coming season to stay at the school.
We can bewail the situation all we want, citing those reputed billionaires connected with our school in some way but it comes down to what Cronin and Co. actually have to spend rather than what we imagine they should have. I don't think we aren't competitive but I do believe what we do have to spend isn't sufficient in this current world to put together a complete roster with elite players at every position or even close to that. I think what Cori Close was able to accomplish this past season was only possible because the particular players she found brought the dream of being part of a super team and winning a national championship with them to UCLA. They each stayed the course despite the reality they could have made a lot more money had they shopped for offers to be the headliner at another school with a lot of money to spend. Hard to see that happening very often in today's college basketball world.
Article is called "College basketball's $20 million roster era: Inside the biggest spenders of the transfer portal" by Pete Nakos, On3